Pirate Party Australia is a political party in Australia that has traditionally represented civil liberty issues, but has also expanded into more traditional areas of policy.[2] It is a Pirate Party which is based on the Pirate Party of Sweden, and has continued to develop a comprehensive policy platform since its formation based on the Pirate ethos.[3]

The Pirate Party was founded in 2008 by Rodney Serkowski with the launch of a website and a wiki, and a request for contributions.[4] In 2009, the first National Council of the Party was elected. Pirate Party Australia was formally registered as a political party by the Australian Electoral Commission on 17 January 2013.[5][6]

The Pirate Party's platform is developed collaboratively and democratically, and hosted on a wiki on the Party's website.[11] All policies are required to meet the principles and objectives as set out in the Party's constitution and be supported by a two-thirds majority vote of all full members of the Pirate Party at a relevant meeting.[12][13] Policies will also only be adopted after the completion of an online seven-day voting period, where all full members may take part.[14]

When founded in 2009, the Pirate Party's platform started off limited to a series of core policies: civil and digital liberties (opposition to internet censorship), government transparency, personal privacy, and copyright and patent reform. By 2013, the platform and policies of the Pirate Party have expanded significantly into a comprehensive policy set that competes with the major parties and larger minor parties in detail and breadth.

Most policy is adopted and debated at a National Congress, which meets annually in July.[15] The meeting is hosted physically, but also simultaneously broadcast live via a web stream with interaction tools, allowing participation for all members and the public regardless of physical proximity from the meeting. Another type of conference called a Policy Meeting can also be hosted specifically for the adoption and debate of policy and platform amendments, which did happen once in April 2013.[16]

Since 2013, the Party set off to rapidly expand its platform and policy set, expanding into more traditional areas of political discourse such as education, the environment, energy, welfare, taxation and asylum seeker policy.

In April 2013, a Policy Meeting was hosted in order to deliberate on significant amendments to the platform and policy set. For the first time in the Pirate Party's history, the meeting resolved to introduce platform amendments outside traditional Pirate political areas and introduce detailed policy texts to complement the platform, including: clean energy, a moratorium on coal seam gas extraction, taxation reform, welfare reform, drug reform, marriage reform, the introduction of a bill of rights, and improving the electoral process.[18]

The National Congress in July 2013 saw the introduction of further policies, including: civil liberties, cultural participation, education, democratic institution reform, animal welfare, asylum seekers and refugees and foreign policy and treaty making. The welfare policy was updated to include support for the NDIS and other minor changes.[19]

2014 saw fewer amendments than the overhauls of the previous years, introducing policy amendments relating to constitutional reform, copyright, education, energy, the environment and climate change, privacy law, and tax and welfare.[20]

At the request of Exit International, Pirate Party Australia member David Campbell[25] conducted a series of information sessions as part of Exit International's workshop for seniors who wanted to know how to by-pass the Australian Internet Filter so that they can access information on safe euthanasia techniques.[26]

Pirate Party Australia has adopted Euthanasia rights into their party policy platform.[27]

In 2012, members of the Pirate Party's ACT branch ran as independent candidates in the Australian Capital Territory elections.[28][29] The Pirate Party endorsed three ungrouped candidates in the election, each of whom received 0.4-0.5% of the primary vote.[30]

The Pirate Party was approached by Glenn Druery to be a member of the Minor Party Alliance, but chose to eschew membership of the alliance due to the membership requirement of preferencing far right parties highly, and instead chose to base preferences upon a democratic vote of its members along policy lines.[31] Democratically deciding their Senate preferences is now standard practice for Pirate Party Australia. It did so in the 2014 Western Australia Senate Rerun.[32]

Pirate Party Australia ran eight candidates for the Senate in the 2013 Federal Election: two candidates each in the states of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania.[33] The best result was in Tasmania with a 0.6% primary vote. The party was unique in its approach to preference deals with other parties in that they are professing to eschew the secret deals that typify preference negotiations and instead are conducting all such activities openly and transparently and putting all decisions to a membership vote.[34][35]

In the 2013 Senate election, Pirate Party Australia did not run candidates in WA. However, due to certain issues with the results of that election, there was a special WA rerun election, where the party did run two candidates. The party preferenced Scott Ludlam of the Australian Greens as their next highest preference.

Pirate Party Australia ran two candidates on the Pirate Party ticket in the special election: Fletcher Boyd and Michelle Allen. Pirate Party Australia received 0.49%[36] of the first preference group ticket votes.